Ulrich Hofmann

Ulrich Hofmann (January 22, 1903 – July 5, 1986) was a German chemist known for his study of clay minerals and the pioneering use of electron microscopes in the study of carbonaceous materials.

Education and career

Hofmann was born in Munich in 1903 and the son of the German chemist Karl Andreas Hofmann. He studied chemistry at Technische Universität Berlin and obtained a diploma in 1925. He went on to receive his doctorate in 1926 from his father with the work Glanzkohlenstoff und die Reihe des schwarzen kristallinen Kohlenstoffs (Lustrous carbon and the series of black crystalline carbon). In 1931, he received habilitation on graphite oxide and then worked as a lecturer at Technische Universität Berlin.

In 1937, Hofmann joined the NSDAP. In the same year, he also became a professor of chemistry and the head of the Institute of Chemistry at the University of Rostock. He only served briefly in World War II since he was released for war-related work. In 1942, he became head of the Institute for Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry at the Vienna University of Technology, where he also installed an electron microscope by Manfred von Ardenne. In 1945, Hofmann left Vienna and, from 1948, taught chemistry and set up his laboratory at the Philosophical-Theological University of Regensburg (now University of Regensburg), where no chemistry had previously been taught. In 1951, he became professor of inorganic and physical chemistry at Technische Universität Darmstadt.